Fielding Lewis was born on July 7, 1725, at Warner Hall in Gloucester County, the third of seven children of John Lewis IV (also known as Colonel John Lewis) and Frances Fielding Lewis. His mother died in 1731 from complications related to childbirth, and during the winter of 1734–1735 John Lewis married Priscilla Churchhill Carter, the widow of Robert Carter II and inheritor of £2,500 from his will. Her son, Robert Carter III, spent two years at Warner Hall before attending school.
On April 6, 1742, John Lewis bought 406 acres of land in Fredericksburg, a growing port town on the Rappahannock River in Spotsylvania County and the site of a state tobacco inspection station. Soon he established a store that sold a wide variety of items including clothing, rum, sugar, and writing supplies that were likely imported from abroad on Lewis-owned ships. In 1744, John Thornton, who previously owned a tavern in Fredericksburg, became the factor, or manager, of Lewis’s business. By April 1